At ForeignPolicy.com, Blake’s been doing some research into the standard media assumption that China is Burma’s biggest trading partner. While China is indeed the main provider of Burma’s imports, it turns out that it’s the destination for just 5.3 per cent of the exports coming out of Burma. So what’s the number one export destination? Thailand – for no less than 49 per cent of Burmese exports. Blake concludes:
Bottom line: Be very skeptical when reading accounts of how China, or any country, can put meaningful pressure on the junta.
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Alex Evans is founder of Larger Us, which explores how we can use psychology to reduce political tribalism and polarisation, a senior fellow at New York University, and author of The Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough? (Penguin, 2017).
He is a former Campaign Director of the 50 million member global citizen’s movement Avaaz, special adviser to two UK Cabinet Ministers, climate expert in the UN Secretary-General’s office, and was Research Director for the Business Commission on Sustainable Development.
Alex lives with his wife and two children in Yorkshire.
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